326 



HORTICULTURE 



August 29, 1914 



STANDARDIZE THE JARDINIERES. 



Rumors of a movement on hand to 

 have the standard flower pots changed 

 from the present standard shape adopt- 

 ed at the convention of the Society of 

 American Florists, at Boston, Mass., on 

 August 21, 1890, having reached the 

 ears of the pottery trade their immedi- 

 ate reply is "Standardize the Jardin- 

 ieres." Our product was standardized 

 in 1890. Rumor has it that some few 

 retailers object to the present style of 

 standard rimmed pots and they suggest 

 a return to the smaller rim, similar in 

 design to the old style hand-made pots 

 o£ uncertain dimension, simply because 

 one or more of their customers may 

 have a pet jardinier which they find 

 hard or impossible to insert a standard 

 rimmed pot in without the rim show- 

 ing. 



The jardiniere makers are continu- 

 ally at work designing and making 

 new patterns in regular and odd shapes 

 in limited quantities which are soon 

 discarded, and seemingly pay little at- 

 tention to the size of the opening in 

 its relation to the depth of the vessel 

 while a few thoughts directed to that 

 end in view would clear up at once any 

 objection to the use of standard flower 

 pots as made at present. The potteries, 

 to keep up with the newest design of 

 jardinieres, would have to be continu- 

 ally changing the size and shape of 

 their pots to correspond to the chang- 

 ing designs of jardinieres, and there 

 w'ould soon be no use for standard 

 shapes as there would be none made. 

 To return to the old style would not 

 remove the objections made by the re- 

 tailers and the same difficulty would 

 occur as the old style pot was propor- 

 tionally thicker at the top and possibly 

 thicker around the rim than the pres- 

 ent pot with rim and would still bind 

 before reaching the bottom of the jar- 

 dinieres. 



In olden days, long before the adop- 

 tion of the present standard pots, the 

 pottery salesman would sell pots to 

 one florist for five-inch and possibly 

 the next customer would buy the same 

 pot for a six-inch: then again a florist 

 would advertise six-inch stock, which 

 upon arrival to destination would go 

 into the buyers' five-inch pots. These 

 conditions were the same in every sec- 

 tion of the country, and the year the 

 Society of American Florists adopted 

 and standardized the flower pots, they 

 did more for the trade in general than 

 any other convention up to that time, 

 (and possibly since). 



Practical potters tell us they would 

 prefer a smaller rim as then they 

 could place more pots in their kilns 

 and less room would be occupied in 

 storage per thousand pots, but, this 

 would necessitate a smaller diameter 

 bottom and therefore less room for the 

 soil so much desired by the grower and 

 it is only by the present system of 

 "nesting" or "stacking" pots, that the 

 price is kept at the present low price. 

 The basket maker gets a standard 

 pot, azalea or bulb pan, whichever he 

 wants to make, if a new design, and 

 his baskets are formed over the size 

 pot or pan to be used, thereby pre- 

 venting the use of those words so apt 

 to spring from our lips, when things 

 go wrong. The supply houses have on 

 hand figures or samples of the most 

 used tizes of standard flower pots and 

 whenever a novelty is offered to them 



L 



^ 





tell you exactly what 

 ' guarantee means. It 

 means that we guarantee all Hicks' 

 nursery grown stock to thrive. 

 This applies to all our trees, big 

 or little; all our shrubs; all hardy 

 plants. 



It anything you l)uy doesn't lire 

 and thrive, we will replace It, and 

 do it cheerfully and willingly. 

 We not only want to replace it, 

 but we insist on doing it. 



All we ask of our customers Is 

 to let us know the way the plant- 

 ing was done; the kind of soil and 

 whether the watering was done 

 freely or sparingly. Our only 

 reason in asking for even this 

 much information Is to find out if 

 the planting and handling has 

 been done right; and if not, make 

 suggestions for the proper care of 

 the replaced stock. 



Of course we know full well that 

 every once In a while we will be 



imposed upon, and that our stock 

 will be blamed when the fault Is 

 entirely due to wrong handling or 

 neglect. 



But, on the other hand, our stock 

 Is so well grown and so strong; 

 and our packing methods so care- 

 ful and so thorough, that Hicks' 

 stock thrives under many cases of 

 poor conditions and neglect, where 

 other stock would be a complete 

 failure. Because of this fact, we 

 can afford to make such a sweep- 

 ing guarantee. 



Our replacements each year are 

 very few. So few it would sur- 

 prise you. 



Our stock may sometimes cost a 

 l)it more- than others, but that's to 

 be expected with anything and 

 everything that is superior. Don't 

 you want some of these fine White 

 Spruce for planting in September? 

 Every one of them to be sold with 

 Hicks' guarantee. 



Prices— White Spruce 



:i ft. liiKh, ii in. npr $9.00 prr 1(1; »80.01l per J(H); *BfK).00 per 1000 



:)'••: ft. hlgli, 2 ft. spr I7..50 per 10; 150.00 per 100; 1,000.00 per 1000 



1 ft. high, i'/j ft. spr., 8 yeurs old 23.60 per 10; 200.00 per 100 



5 ft. high 30.00 per 10; 250.00 per 100 



fan .vou use a White Spruce hedge, S ft. high, at J22.50 per 100 feet? 



Don't hesitate because of distance — we recently 

 .shipped to Detroit, Michigan, four carloads of big ever- 

 greens to the faninns autnmobile maker. Henry Ford. 



flicks |reG;5 



Isaac Hicks &>§>on 



Woslburu . Lon^ IslaHd 



their first Inquiry is "Does it fit the 

 standard flower pot?" 



The potters' cry of "standardize the 

 jardinieres" should also apply to the 

 ferndishes and every retailer knows 

 his troubles in the past, when with 

 hammer, chisel and saw he has tried 

 to cut down a pot or pan to fit a liner 

 to some odd size fern dish, or has 

 called upon some tinsmith to make the 

 liner of zinc or tin. 



Any stardard flow^er pot manufac- 

 turer would gladly furnish the jardin- 

 iere and fern dish makers any infor- 

 mation regarding dimensions, etc. of 

 their product. J. G. Whilldin. 



Philadelphia. 



PATENTS GRANTED. 



1.106,615. Insect-Destroyer. Abner A. 



Barron, Duck Hill, Miss. 

 1 107,227. Grass Shears. Patrick F, 



Ryan, Syracuse, N. Y. 



Charles Sim, landscape contractor, 

 Rosemont, Pa., who has been on a trip 

 to Europe, arrived home on the 23rd. 

 Like the rest of the pilgrims — glad he's 

 back — even if he did have to come 

 second cabin. The panic all around 

 was severe, but he did not forget an 

 Aberdeen McTavish for the mogul of. 

 I loRTict;i.Tt;KE's Philadelphia office. 



